20180128- Muju , S Korea -Revisted after 20 Years! Minus 16 degrees! & Testimony!!!

This was the minus 16 temperature ever lowest experienced in my lifetime!

Exactly 20 years ago in Jan 1998, Muju Ski resort was the first official place where we took up our skiing lessons.  At that time, we struggled coming down the one and only green slope of over 3km for the 2 days after the lessons.

Fast forward, on 22/1/18, we decided to re-visit this same place.  After all, it was the source of our inspiration to ski for the next many years to come.  

Any MAJOR Changes since then? :)

1. No more old airport at KIMPO but INCHEON!  Took intercity bus from Seoul to Muju city instead of the ski -direct bus. And then the free shuttle from Muju city to the mountain!

2. Skiied the same old slope which we struggled back then.  Only now to find it a piece of cake! LOL! So John tried his snowboarding this time!

3. Skiied almost all the rest of the runs except one which is "Black expert".  Came to the highest peak this time! Only to experience the strong winds at the top and the first ever -freezing minus 16 degrees.  My pink scarf couldn't hold the biting cold:(

No choice - had to invest in a $20 plus versatile mask for the next 2 days ski!

 4 Watched the Live AO tennis on 26/1/18 Fri where Federal beat the first ever Korean tennis player Hyung (21) who made it to the Semi-finals in many many years!  Old Fed who turned 36 still proved to be an outlier of the outliest.  Hyung retired in 3rd set owing to horrible blisters on his foot:(

Enjoyed the Korean Soju (Less than $6.50 per bottle for continuous 2 evenings until went a little tipsy!LOL)

5 Witnessed the clean and neat return of trays at the Korean foodcourt. Decided to observe and took the photos to send in Reach in Spore for followup as ours is much to be desired:( Sad to say....

6. Lasting red ski suit worn for more than 18 years!

When I first started to learn to ski, the yellow suit was rented. Thereafter a year later to our next ski in Whistler, bought this red ski suit and the separate woollen tops and bottoms from Mountain Equipment.  Think it cost about $300 for the 4 piece suit - outer and inner.  Well, worn for a long long time...worth it!

Photos of before and after 20 years...LOL

1998 vs 2018!

Same spot on Green ski slope : 2018 John vs 1998 Mui

1998 (plane to Seoul) and 2018 (Bus back to Incheon from Muju)

7 More glorious food since..Yum Yum

Fish cakes....beef...chicken ..hot dogs...seafood...bread..more side dishes & ......soju and beer!

Reflection and Testimonies

1. An answered prayer to my stuck zipper on my red ski jacket on Friday!

1. 

On friday morning, my outer red ski top's zipper was caught by the fabric. I struggled to reset it and John tried to undo but was unsuccessful.  Upon the return from the restroom and seeing the thing still stuck, I decided to pray aloud " OH please Lord, help me.  Undo this or else I would not be able to go out to ski!" well, guess what happens next? All I did was to give it another tug and shot and Whee! Zipper came off smoothly! PTL and Amen and Thank The Lord for the job!

2. God watches over us with love all the time ! Got back to Incheon airport on time! From Muju-Daejeon-Incheon

We left the mountain top as early as 8am on the last day.  This time we did not pre book any taxis or buses back to Incheon Airport (Thinking that after taking the city bus from Muju to the next bigger city in Daejeon ( about 1.5hours) would allow us to catch the next airport bus from Daejeon to Incheon at 9:30am schedule)  To our shock, all the airport buses were full and the next available was at 11:20am!  This sector journey requires about 2.5 hours.  

Our flight was at 4:20pm.  We had wanted to give ourselves more time in case of jams etc..Wow but the 11;20am bus was kind of tight.  Nevertheless, thanks to the road condition, we still managed to arrive quite nicely for the check in! PTL! 
[Lesson learnt: Major coach sectors ought to be pre-booked in advance in future!]


Final reflections
Had borrowed this book "Living in the Miraculous" by Katherine Ruonala" from the Queenstown National Library for this trip.

Guess the above testimonies summarized the loving God and His loving answers to my call for help! God is good all the time and all the time He is good. 

This year Grammy 2018, Hillsong won the first award in the christian song section for their song " What a Beautiful Name it is" .

And there is a story behind this song...

https://hillsong.com/collected/blog/2016/10/what-a-beautiful-name-song-story/#.WnLA366WYrg

And yes, what a beautiful name it is. What a wonderful name it is and what a powerful name it is.  THE NAME OF JESUS!  Using it to remember several friends who are going through challenging times with health as in cancer.  In times like this, when i seemingly felt helpless to help those in their lowest moments, when I run out of words to pray - I sing His name all over again!  And I know He hears.

20180103 - Second visit to the Good Shepherd & Meeting the man behind the Nativity mock up

Photo taken 3/1/18  Meeting the man behind the excellent mock up of the Nativity! Bernard

Having visited this Cathedral on 1/1/18 and being so impressed by the joyful angelic lights and the impressive huge mock up of the Nativity, we decided to bring some more friends over for a feast of the lights.

And it was on this visit that we met the man behind this whole mock up!

We had a good overview of his work of love in person.  Passionately sharing that it took him about 7 years to build this up and this year was the second year of exhibition. It took him and team about a month just to lay this out for visitors to visit and have a better understanding of the Gospel through this Nativity setting.

 Bernard's wife Marie explaining to us briefly the entire scene of how it came about.

And Bernard showed us a different scene of the place when he switched off the room lights! And it was awesome !

We were told that part of the buildings were made of egg trays! And crumpled brown papers made the rocks that surrounded this entire mock up!

Bernard shared even the details of the moving water fountain and the lit up fires and the streams. All a team of labour of love and ideas contributed by others to make this whole mock up an exceptionally wonderfully done up project. To Him be the Glory!

Even the small fruits that were strung up were done meticulously by Bernard's hand of love.

And apparently this is just the second year of the exhibition.

The Nativity set up had almost come to a complete completion after 7 years of labour.

So with that, they did this photo shoot of this entire project and turned the photo into a nice decopauge for sale to interested parties.

(I thought it was through a photo that he did the 3D mock up. But I was wrong on 1/1/18. It turned out to be the other way round!)

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

We were so fortunate to have met the couple behind this project - Bernard and Marie. It ended our little night outing with the group  (whose ages went from 50-60-70 and 90s ) feeling a WOW .  We were initially disappointed that the Orchard lit up was already closed and I prayed so hard that Good Shepherd was still lit up! So just before we turned into the Cathedral, we asked the oldies to close their eyes until we drove into the compound where the big lit up angels stood.  In fact 2 of the ladies had only one good eye sight. So it was such a joy to see them so thrilled as they opened their eyes! WoW ? WoW ! Wow! Nevermind the shortchanged Orchard lights - this was even better! And they loved the smaller angels too! Ha Ha Ha!

So perhaps we were again late this year for the Orchard light up drive!. 

But God is always good! Yes! He is a Good Shepherd indeed! He provided all of us a great night of no rain but a splendid display of His Angelic lights and enabling us to meet the man 'Maker" behind this creative mock up instead. What a joy!

Most importantly, all of us remembered that He is the real Maker of our lives. 

The 3D mockup will be taken down and warehoused next Monday.  What a waste that it can only be exhibited during this Dec Christmas season due to 'house constraint'.  Guess, little red dot is really a land-scarce country.  We too have no room to permanently "house" the Nativity scene.  

Nevertheless, we shall remember - Jesus Christ, born in a manger , some 2018 years ago.  We are the reason why He came.  

1 Cor 1:18 "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to us which are saved it is the power of God"

20180101-John10 : Angels at Cathedral of The Good Shepherd

Luke 2:13-14 : And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men"

Photo: 1/1/18 @ Cathedral of Good Shepherd

Still in the Christmas 2017 mood! But on New Year 2018 first night, we decided to take my MIL for a car ride to see the Orchard lights and ended up at this newly renovated Cathedral of Good Shepherd.

And I was so delighted to see those big lit up ANGELS! They were so beautiful to behold. Wished I could give them a hug but unfortunately I decided not to be 'shocked to death" in my thrill of joy:) They were literally angels of Lights..made of LED lights. LOL!

Angels with trumpets, violins and harps....

Smaller angels in the compound! But I love the tall hovering ones ! Ha Ha (looks more like my guardian angels alright - my Protector!"

This Cathedral has been recently restored and renovated.  At the side of the main building was an extension which housed the mock up display of the Navity.  Boy! It was excellently done up!

The perspective of this mock up with us overlooking it!

From actual mock up to a photo unto a decopauge! Pretty!

Remembering Luke 2:15 After the angels left, the shepherds went to Bethlehem And found Mary, Joseph and the babe Jesus lying in the manger.

Above the famous Michelangelo's Renaissance replica of Mary carrying Jesus who was crucified 33 years after his birth.  His death on the cross for mankind's sins.  "We are the reason that He gave His life"

Jesus came and His birth cuts our 'date"line from BC - Before Christ to AD (ANNO DOMINI - in latin : means "in the year of the Lord"), now 2018AD. This showed how significance His birth was to Historians. Even our present calendar noted it transcending across all cultures in the world. And unlike many who thought he was ang moh, he was actually not. He was middle eastern - his skin was more brown or yellow than white!

The main Cathedral and the inside pews.

Reflections

Do angels exist? Oh yes they do! I would not be surprised if my guardian angel was with me on that night laughing at me for all the poses, short of the bear hugs!

It was my first time entering into this Cathedral. It bears a great name.

Good Shepherd!

One of Jesus' declarations : He is the Good Shepherd! That is in John 10. Besides the famous one whom He said that He is the Light of the World.

If we are living in a farmland with sheep and sheep dogs, we will probably understand John 10 better.  I came back feeling on top of the world that night. Awesome cool, serene & tranquil evening! I truly enjoyed the whole atmosphere.  The excellent mock up of the Navity was a bonus.

A nice start to a 2018 AD! In the Year of the Lord!

Thanking the Lord for John 10:-

• v9   for being my door of my life and salvation and allowing me to find the pasture to lie on
• V10 for granting me life abundantly
• V11 for being the good shepherd by dying on the cross just for me
• V13 for being not the hireling but my Shepherd who cares and protects me from the wolves.
• V14 for knowing me just as I am
• V15 for being so generous always in wanting to bring other sheep outside the fold to Himself (There are so many churches and denominations in this world, yet Jesus constantly reminded us "There shall be one fold and one shepherd" Pastors , preachers are hirelings, but we the sheep ought to keep on looking at the one and only ONE SHEPHERD- JESUS CHRIST. V18 - He has the power to lay it down, and he had the power to take it again. His death on the Cross, His resurrection - an empty tomb without the body, He is alive!"

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Preach Christ or nothing: don't dispute or discuss except with your eye on the cross" Charles Spurgeon

So here is to a new year 2018, years may come and years may go...LOVE again always...Fixed on the Author of our life always!